STS-118: Omnibus Thread

Originally posted by V Kaminski
The current External Tank ET-117 on STS-118 was for STS-114 but RTF CAIB specs forced it back to Michoud for re-fit...

the announcer was saying something about that earlier...

Originally posted by V Kaminski
This is the last of the pre-RTF tanks. Did you know that the crew space frame for Endeavour was made in 1982? Or that the bulk of OV-105 was made up of spares from the stores originally reserved for Columbia/Atlantis/Discovery/Challenger?

no i didn't know that; interesting...

Originally posted by V Kaminski
The folks in firing room 4 keep looking at one monitor set and pointing at something.

where do you get that from? is that on the feed? i keep watching but mostly listening for now as i am do other web surfing too...

Originally posted by V Kaminski
NASA and Microsoft have teamed up to to showcase some NASA content in 3D including STS missions. It requires XP SP2 or Vista and some hardware minimums.

I wasn't "blown away" or anything but it would seem to be of some value and does offer some shots I'd never seen before. Those with an interest can check the default page here.

this was kick-ass, i enjoyed looking at the pics there; pretty cool... but i noticed that on this page it states that "This was most likely Atlantis' final flight." do you know what that means? is Atlantis done for? i tried to search NASA's site for more info but couldn't find anything...

(edit - spelling)

[edit on 8 8Aug 07 by m3rlz]

No. You don't say. Atlantis' final flight? Nah, gotta be a mistake. I'll check it for sure. I am unaware of this.

I'm watching the NASA-TV main feed on the web. They show the firing room every now and again for a minute or two as they camera-hop. Unfortunately the monitor at which they were pointing at doesn't face the control room web-cam. Could just be ice build up which is normal on the ground plumbing on a humid day.

There back to 80% on weather, tanking at 45%... crew was up at 8:00AM... they usually release a clip of breaky or lunch.

Cheers,

Vic

Yeah. Some news agencies are quoting the same. I know NASA does intend to stop flying some shuttles earlier than others. I would think it may be her last skedded flight (not 100% till I read a NASA official release) but it would be a good idea to keep her flight ready as an emergency contingency. The cabin over-press valve that is on STS-118 was cannibalized from Atlantis' (there are no spares)... Atlantis has significant miles on it.

The processing workflow does lend it self more easily to two Orbiters as seen by the "parking" of Endeavour while her sisters flew all the RTF's till now.

Cheers and thanx m3'

Vic

[edit on 8-8-2007 by V Kaminski]

if that was to be Atlantis' last flight, don't you think they would've announced that at the time of the mission or shortly thereafter? whacked...

considering there are only 3 orbiters left, Endeavour being the newest, are they just gonna ground Atlantis and strip her for parts for Discovery and Endeavour? i thought Discovery came before Atlantis, but perhaps not; i will have to look as i have forgotten, d'oh...

(edit - keep spelling Endeavour wrong, d'oh)

[edit on 8 8Aug 07 by m3rlz]

Weather looks pretty clear at the Cape right now. They were saying that everything is looking good for this afternoon's launch. Yesterday I had read that there was only a 40% chance of launch, has that improved?

I will be happy if they get this thing rocking and rolling on time.

Here's a NASA Orbiter history link and a more in-depth Vehicle structure page. Discovery is "older" and does have more flight time in missions.

Just under 8 hours till launch... T-minus 4 hours 5 minutes and counting...

Cheers,

Vic

[edit on 8-8-2007 by V Kaminski]

80% chance of favorable launch, with only a slight chance of showers this afternoon which could prevent the launch...

T minus 4 hours 4 minutes and counting...

Hi chuck'. Looks about 80% favourable weather wise... here's a link to the Patrick AFB 45th Space Wing Weather Squadron latest 24 hour PDF. The satellite view for KSC is not unfavourable and the doppler is showing some normal daytime heat related clouds... no worries yet.

Tanking is almost complete and the command to go to replenish mode should be given for both tanks shortly.

Cheers,

Vic

[edit on 8-8-2007 by V Kaminski]

Originally posted by V Kaminski
Here's a NASA Orbiter history link. and a more in-depth Vehicle structure page. Discovery is "older" and does have more flight time in missions.

cool links VK, thanks... i was digging thru my old docs for the info but i guess i forgot about google, lol... (i used to write to all the major nasa centers when i was young and get 1"-thick packages of info about all kinds of stuff; way before the internet...)

tanking should be complete within the next 30 minutes, everything still nominal, all systems go; w00t...

usually they show the astronauts having breakfast and stuff, but nothing yet...

CSA still sends out "packages" to those who request them too. One of the neighbours kids wrote to St. Hubert and asked some simple questions...

Didn't get any reply to the questions, but is on a mailing list that has the Postal folks carrying some serious paper... the "old" crew at CSA used to just put it on the web FTP... some still do. Times change - management changes, promo and PR seems "hot" right now at CSA. Gonna be a big launch "in-house" shindig tonight... hosted by Steve MacClean and with some political-celebrity guest appearances for the photo-op...

There has been no news-conference or briefing and the TV sked has just gone to Rev A... I'm guessing no management statement before launch. Pad Inspection Team ought to be rolling soon...

Cheers,

Vic

Originally posted by V Kaminski
One of the neighbours kids wrote to ... and asked some simple questions...

Didn't get any reply to the questions...

lol, i did that once too... back in 1988 i wrote to John Glenn and a few other astronauts (i happened to come upon a complete list of home/office addresses for most of the astronauts at the time)... i wrote a long letter with a bunch of questions and never got a reply to it... all i got in return was an 8x10 black/white photo with a message of "To Mike -- John Glenn"... needless to say i was happy to get that... he was the only one i ever received any sort of reply from... i still have it and it is one of my favorite things to this day... John Glenn's autograph to me, ahhhh, w00t...

well we're at the T minus 3 hours and holding mark; all systems still go for launch... time to go get some more beer and do a bit of gaming to pass the time... i will still be listening to it in the background tho...

Just finishing the text files for recording alternate hours in WMR 11. Last mission I captured about 90% of the mission with a couple nights where the feed was lost and the software wouldn't reconnect automatically.

The Missus' made sure I was well-stocked for consumables; food (meat), huggies, beverages (diet coke and Mill St. organic), foil hats, welder's goggles for me and the cat, good glasses, better glasses, magnifying glass, ObusForm... and my paper and pen for writing down times to check the video for "off-nominal stuff", for what, all things going well on Flight Day Five (FD-5), could turn out to be a 14 day mission.

A bit dodgey that SSPTS power transfer system. It is unknown exactly how it will behave when plugged in to ISS 120V system and converted to STS 28V... bunch of other little "unknowns" that can't really be tested until they plug it in and see what happens. It "should" work great and serve to reduce APU consumables on orbit for STS.

No troubles... today. Fingers-crossed.

Lunch and suit up next... Close Out Team is gettin' the White Room ready. Comin' up on 6 hours to nominal launch. Pizza.

Cheers,

Vic

BTW: There's no public news from ISS since last week. They are McBusy.

[edit on 8-8-2007 by V Kaminski]

NASA's Launch blog is "up". For those with an interest in the events in the countdown and holds and stuff NASA has a great Countdown 101. For those with an interest in launch abort scenarios here's a PDF that NASA PAO provides... it covers the four abort modes and Trans-Oceanic Abort landing sites.

Kathy Winters has briefed Mike Linebach on the weather and her "good weather on 1st attempt" record is way high.

5 hours 30 minutes to nominal launch. "GO FLIGHT!"

Cheers,

Vic
EDIT: To add revised seating arrangement for uphill and downhill here.

[edit on 8-8-2007 by V Kaminski]

2:45PM crew's headin' to Pad 39A in the Astro Van. NASA is working no issues. 3 hours 49 minutes to launch. Startin' to get real... loadin' humans. Should be flying "touches" of runway 33 soon.

Cheers for the crew!

Vic



[edit on 8-8-2007 by V Kaminski]

yes it is getting close, the crew just arrived at the pad... it should start getting exciting now...

The Astro doing commentary said the White Room has a toilet. I was unaware of that. There's still a couple of built in holds... things get exciting for me when Linebach calls for "Go/No-Go" for launch. Everything gets maxed-out for me from about T-Minus 9 minutes until the Orbiter opens the payload bay doors.

I do my prayer thing at about T-Minus 60 seconds and hold my breath from T-Minus 6.6 seconds till after SRB sep at T-Plus 2:04. Almost time to pull them belts tight one-more-time. I love this stuff.

Cheers,

Vic

[edit on 8-8-2007 by V Kaminski]

CDR Kelly com check to Houston: 5 by 5. Endeavour has the newer cameras, inside a bit "crisper" than Atlantis. Gettin' 7 people shoe-horned and belted down when the Orbiter is vertical has quite a choreography to it. Here's to a safe launch and a successful mission for Endeavour on ISS 13A.1!!! DEXTRE's ride to ISS.

Some Flight Day 1 bits to look for should we get a good launch:

- Launch (Fingers-crossed, lucky socks)
- Payload Bay Door Opening 
- External Tank Video (my favorite!)
- Spacehab Activation 
- Shuttle Robot Arm Power Up 
- External Tank Video and Still Photography Downlink
(that we may not get to see)

Audio isn't as bad this time either...

Cheers,

Vic

[edit on 8-8-2007 by V Kaminski]

3:44 p.m. EDT - More good news on the weather. Forecasters are removing isolated showers from this evening's forecast, according to Kathy Winters, so the chance of weather preventing launch tonight has dropped to only 10 percent.